To provide personal computers (PC) to users in emerging countries in which resources may be scarce, the concept of a rental PC has been introduced in which a user pays to use a PC by the month or by access event, spreading the cost of the PC among many months. As understood herein, however, it is important to prevent a user of a rental PC from “cheating” by reducing the time that has been recorded for his usage and thereby improperly use the computer beyond the time he has paid for.
Memory modules, including, e.g., dual in-line memory modules (DIMM) and small outline DIMM (SODIMM), plug in to a PC motherboard to serve as computer memory during operation. As is known in the art, when a computer is turned on, the computer processor invokes a small pre-operating system known as a basic input output system (BIOS). As used herein “BIOS” refers generically to boot loading systems including the uEFI system (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) that is stored in solid state memory of the computer to in turn copy a larger operating system such as Windows (a trademarked name) or Linux and user applications and data from a hard disk drive into the memory of the computer, which memory can be established by the above-mentioned memory modules. The present invention critically recognizes that memory module sockets can also be used to securely manage the time that a renter uses the computer.